


Black Mesa Sweet Voice(tm) / Quirk: Communicative Song

by Omness



Category: HLVRAI-Fandom, Half Life VR But The AI Is Self Aware
Genre: Alternate Universe - Quirks (My Hero Academia), Gen, Not A Videogame AU, very minor amount of Benrey/Gordon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-27
Updated: 2020-08-27
Packaged: 2021-03-06 18:34:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,891
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26143420
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Omness/pseuds/Omness
Summary: During the birthday party at Chuck E. Cheese, Benrey apologizes to Gordon. Of course with Benrey, nothing is ever straightforward.
Relationships: Benrey & Gordon Freeman
Comments: 3
Kudos: 48





	Black Mesa Sweet Voice(tm) / Quirk: Communicative Song

Gordon sat in one of the Chuck E. Cheese booths, absolutely exhausted. The party had begun winding down and most everyone had left; coworkers saying their final birthday wishes to Tommy before going home to recover from the last four days of chaos and hope that Mr. Coolatta was telling the truth about the U.S Military being called off.

Not ready to leave quite yet, as he hadn’t yet really grasped mentally that everything was over, Gordon had found a secluded booth and had simply sat there. His cheek leaning heavily against his palm while he stared out at the encroaching New Mexico night, taking idle sips of his cherry Coke to stay awake, his body aching and right hand clenching in strange unfamiliarity with only his HEV suit helmet on the table for company.

It was at this point that Gordon heard the sound of someone sliding into the booth across from him. Lazily, Gordon shifted his head to look. And lo and behold, sitting there was a skeleton with its arms tucked under the scratched table.

“Benrey.” Gordon said flatly, but the bitterness in his tone was softened by exhaustion, “What do you want?”

When Gordon had first noticed Benrey attending the party he had felt a myriad of emotions; shock, anger, annoyance, but it had all slowly been washed away by indifference. Of course Benrey wasn’t really gone. Of course not. Was he even truly killable? Besides, it’s not like he was causing any trouble. Well, nothing more than Benrey just being Benrey.

And Benrey wasn’t doing anything now either. He just, sat there. Continuing to not cause trouble and staring intently at Gordon. Or at least, intently for a skeleton?

“Whatever.” Gordon said dismissively, he didn’t have the energy to engage in whatever game Benrey was planning. Instead he turned to face the window again. The restaurant was on the edge of the mall strip and all that could be seen were highways that stretched out into infinite blackness.

A soft, singing, “Ahh,” reached Gordon’s ears and he turned his head in his palm again to look at Benrey. He was using the sweet voice, the colorful bubbles streaming from his mouth and stopping just short of Gordon’s chin.

Gordon sighed, lowering his hand to the table and looking around for Tommy to translate whatever Benrey was trying to communicate. He didn’t have high hopes for what Benrey was trying to say, but the sound he was making could get annoying if he continued.

He saw Tommy playing a game of Tekken against Bubby across the restaurant and was about to head over there, but then just… didn’t. It seemed like too much effort, to get up, walk across the building, and then have to interrupt the two of them for something so minor. Besides, it was supposed to be Tommy’s day after all.

Instead Gordon returned his focus to Benrey, who was still maintaining the same note. He studied Benrey, trying to make sense of the Black Mesa Sweet Voice(™) but he couldn’t. The colors meant nothing to him. But the way he sang… it was so very familiar, yet so very strange to him. Like gibberish that sounded like it should be words, but just wasn’t.

Well, it was worth a shot anyway, right?

Closing his eyes, Gordon focused on his breaths, feeling the way it flowed in through his nose and filled his lungs, expanding his diaphragm, then the way it was pushed out his throat and passed his lips. Then he concentrated on his emotions; the tiredness, the idle curiosity, even the slightly simmering annoyance that Benrey would just _come back_ , as if nothing had happened. Then, Gordon sang a single note, lower than Benrey’s, but harmonizing with him, his quirk conveying his emotions without the bubbles of sweet voice and only in the sound.

Benrey’s sweet voice went quiet, and Gordon could make out a faint clack of a closing jaw, but Gordon continued to hold the note. Soon Benrey’s note was back, and he let it sit for a moment, before he started shifting notes, rising in pitch.

Gordon recognized the scale, so he shifted his tone and repeated it back to Benrey. Benrey then descended the scale and Gordon followed. They did that for a bit, Benrey singing a set of notes that Gordon repeated back to him, while keeping his quirk active to share his emotions with his voice. Then Gordon switched it up. When it was his turn to repeat, he instead improvised a melody line in the scale they had been singing in, then went into a background hum, nudging with his emotions that he wanted Benrey to continue.

Benrey picked up on it easily, creating a melody of his own that Gordon sang under, then passed the torch back to Gordon. Once he sang his bit and sent it back to Benrey, Gordon finally opened his eyes, focusing on the bubbles coming from Benrey’s mouth. He had a better handle on what Benrey’s sweet voice sounded like and could derive some context from that, but now he needed to understand the visual aspect and the part it played in the meaning. So as they jammed, Gordon would watch the colors and shapes the bubbles made in the air as they danced around them, trying to find a pattern.

Benrey seemed to catch on to what Gordon was trying to do, but instead of trying to make things easier like someone normal, he instead made things more difficult, switching what he was conveying before Gordon could understand it and yet still keeping a coherent sounding song. Gordon’s irritation, noticeable from his quirk and the way his fists clenched against the tabletop, only seemed to amuse Benrey.

Gordon decided to throw in the towel at that, letting his voice fall silent. If Benrey wasn’t going to cooperate why should he? But then something in Benrey’s tone shifted and he sang a phrase incongruous with what they were doing.

_Bubbles going clear means it’s time for you to hear._

Gordon startled, staring wide-eyed at Benrey. He… He had understood that.

The two of them stared at each other in silence. Gordon still flummoxed that he had actually _understood_ the Sweet Voice and Benrey presumably waiting for a response.

Slowly, hesitantly, Gordon sang a couple notes, conveying his reluctance, but he would listen.

Benrey nodded and began sweet voicing again and Gordon stared at him in confusion for a bit, not comprehending anything. After repeating himself a few times, Benrey exasperatedly sang the scale they had started with and then the phrase again.

Gordon blinked. Oh. He sang the phrase Benrey had been repeating to him. Benrey’s head made a motion that Gordon would call rolling his eyes if he had any eyes, and made a sound with the sweet voice that was distinctly like a gameshow bell ‘correct!’ sound.

Gordon repeated the phrase again, the ‘shut the fuck up and get on with it’ reading loud and clear within it.

Benrey made the rolling eyes motion again, but began sweet voicing, the sound and bubbles mixing with Gordon’s voice to create a message

_The past is something I can’t undo_

_But if this was all to start anew_

_Your friend I’d still like to be_

_This is my apology_

At the end Gordon and Benrey both held the final note, harmonizing, before cutting themselves off into silence.

“That was beautiful!” Coomer exclaimed.

Gordon jumped, banging his knees on the underside of the table and staring wide-eyed in surprise at Coomer where he crouched at the end of the table, his head peeking just above it. Gordon had completely forgotten where they were and that there were other people around.

“What are you-” Gordon began to ask, but then started to cough violently. His throat was so very sore, he hadn't used his quirk so intensely since he was a child communicating with his deaf Granny and now it showed.

Shoving away Bubby’s unintentionally unhelpful back thumps (when did he even get in the booth behind him?), Gordon took several sips of his coke to try and soothe his throat while everyone else looked on with mildly concerned expressions. Once his coughs were under control he reassured everyone, his voice coming out rough, like he had smoked a pack a day since he was twelve, “I’m fine, just overused my quirk a bit.”

Coomer nodded sagely while saying in a cheerful voice, “Happens to the best of us! Why, I once overused my quirk to the point that I-”

“Nobody wants to hear that,” Bubby cut in, still slung over the back of Gordon’s booth, “Nobody,” he stressed.

Several moments of awkward silence passed before Tommy spoke distractedly, as if unaware of what was taking place around him, “There’s a lot that went on here…” He held one of his hands up idly, gently sweeping it through the sweet voice bubbles still floating around as they popped and burst around his hand in an array of textures. He glanced at his father next to him, then at Gordon. “I’m not sure I can translate all of it.”

Gordon sighed and waved a hand to dismiss Tommy’s concern, “It’s fine Tommy, I think I got the important parts.” His voice was still raspy, and probably would be for the rest of the night.

The look Tommy shot Gordon was surprisingly sharp, “You did?”

Feeling locked in place and surprisingly intimidated, Gordon said with uncertainty, “Uh, yeah? Turns out my quirk isn’t that far from sweet voice, I managed to pick up that Benrey was apologizing.”

Tommy’s look softened, it took a moment, but then he smiled as he said, “I didn’t know that was your quirk Mr. Freeman!”

Gordon shrugged, “Yeah, I don’t really tend to use it, doesn’t do much y’know? Not to mention it doesn’t work through the HEV suit’s short distance radio.”

The sound of sweet voice returned Gordon’s attention to Benrey.

“Right.” Gordon said, “We need to decide what to do about Benrey.”

“What’s there to decide?” Bubby asked.

Gordon gave Bubby a funny look over his shoulder, “He did try to kill us, you… don’t normally allow people to hang around you after that.”

“Psshh,” Bubby dismissed that thought with a flick of his hand, “What’s a little murder between friends?”

Gordon tilted his head, “You really don’t care huh?” Then he shrugged, “Well, if it's a unanimous decision on forgiving Benrey I guess we can let him hang around. What do you guys think?”

There were a few moments of silence, and Gordon could almost swear he could hear the crickets chirping outside, but then Coomer said seriously, “I forgive him,” then cheerfully continued, “It’s fun to go all out in a fight, and I hadn’t done that in a long time! Not since they shut down the underground boxing ring after the ‘Cybermutt’ incident.” He then held out a fist for Benrey to bump, which the skeleton returned enthusiastically, “So thanks for the violence!”

“...Right,” Gordon said, pausing for a bit before continuing “So both Bubby and Dr. Coomer are fine with it, what about you two?” He asked, looking at Mr. Coolatta and Tommy.

Mr. Coolatta raised a hand as if to deflect the question away, “I should have no say in the matter, and will simply follow whatever Tommy wishes.”

“Okay.” Gordon nodded, “Tommy?”

Tommy said nothing, his gaze focused on Benrey as Benrey stared back. After several beats of silence Benrey let out of a stream of green sweet voice, a soothing tone accompanying it.

Tommy didn’t respond right away, but slowly his mouth tipped up into a small smile, “Okay, I forgive you,” he said softly, “Just don’t w-worry me like that again alright?”

Benrey nodded seriously. Tommy nodded back.

So... they were all fine with forgiving Benrey.

Gordon hadn’t really expected that. Not after everything Benrey had put them through. 

Then again, Gordon wasn’t really surprised, this whole group was so carefree and blase about most things. They weren’t the type to hold grudges for long.

“What about you Mr. Freeman?” Tommy asked curiously.

Gordon blinked, pointing to himself, “What about me?”

“You-you said the decision had to be unanimous. That includes you.”

“Oh.” 

Did Gordon forgive Benrey? Benrey had been a thorn in his side, a nuisance, had actively impeded his ability to escape Black Mesa several times before trying to kill them in Xen, and seemed to take pleasure in pissing him off. And yet...

And yet, Benrey had been trying to get free of Black Mesa too. He had only been doing what he thought was best to achieve that. At least, until the end when he finally showed his antagonistic colors. But how much of that was Benrey’s own will versus the strangeness of Xen and the reality they were in? How much because Gordon had pushed him over the edge? He had been just as hostile…

Plus, there was that small smile Benrey would try and hide whenever he managed to make Gordon laugh.

Still…

Gordon sighed, burying his face in his hands, flinching for a moment before remembering he no longer had a gun hand to accidentally hit himself with before settling into the posture. He stayed like that for a moment, thoughts tangling up into nothingness.

Finally he looked up from his hands at Benrey across from him, “One more strike.” Gordon said, holding up his pointer finger as Benrey stared at him.

“One strike?” Bubby asked.

“You’ve betrayed me twice now. Once when you led the military to ambush me which caused my arm to get cut off,” Gordon raised another finger, “twice when you tried to kill us all in Xen. You have one more strike and that’s it, you’re out.” He said, spreading his hands out, palms down, “If you purposely cause me such harm again, you _will_ leave me alone so I never have to see you again. If you promise that, I’ll forgive you.” Gordon stared seriously at Benrey, “Do you promise?”

Benrey nodded.

“No. I need to _know_ that you’ll keep your promise.”

Benrey tilted his head, but then what Gordon was trying to say seemed to click as he straightened up and began to sweet voice, the bubbles twirling out of his mouth with a low pitch. Once he was done Tommy said, “A spiral of green to blue means I promise you.” Confirming what Gordon had guessed.

“Then it’s unanimous!” Bubby cheered, making small, popping fires with his powers, “Benrey’s officially back on the science team!”

Coomer began cheering too, and Benrey pumped his skeleton arms up and down in victory.

“I regret this already.” Gordon murmured under his breath.

“Uhhh, excuse me sirs.” A nervous employee interrupted, his shoulders hunched up and pimpled face sweating, “I-I don’t mean to interrupt, but uhhh, it’s past closing time and we’re about to lock up.”

They all stared at him blankly and the boy flinched, “So-so if you could leave that would like, be really appreciated.”

Right, they shouldn’t be a nuisance, other people still had lives to get back to, which, so did they, didn’t they…?

Anyways, Gordon gave the kid a reassuring smile as he slid out of the booth, “No worries, we’ll be right out of your hair.”

The kid didn’t look Gordon in the eyes, instead glancing all around, “Thanks sir, it’s appreciated.”

Gordon blinked, surprised to find that the kid was scared of him too, when he was probably the least intimidating person of the group. Then he remembered, he was still wearing the HEV suit, and despite his best efforts in the claustrophobic Chuck E. Cheese bathroom, it was still caked with blood both alien and human alike.

“Right.” Gordon said quietly, looking away. He grabbed the HEV helmet off the table and rested it against his hip, then said in a stronger, but still raspy voice, “Let’s get going guys.” And began heading for the front doors.

The rest of the science team followed, Bubby and Coomer quickly passing in front of Gordon, animatedly talking about planning a bank heist (that’s right, he had said something about doing that once they got out hadn’t he?), and Tommy and Mr. Coolatta trailing behind. And Benry, well, Gordon didn’t look, but the quiet clacking of bones made it clear he was following.

Once everyone was outside they just stood there, quietly, staring at what little orange remained of the sunset. This was it. They were done with fighting aliens, with fighting bootboys, with fighting Benrey, and most of all they were done with Black Mesa, it’s shutdown imminent if it even survived. But Black Mesa had been their entire lives for the last four days while they worked together and supported each other even as they insulted themselves. And now it was just, gone.

Quietly, barely heard over the sound of passing cars, Tommy said what they were all thinking, “What next?”

“I guess… we go home.” Bubby said.

All of a sudden anxiety ripped through Gordon. He couldn’t say goodbye to the science team, not yet. A part of him was afraid that this wasn’t real, that there was nothing beyond this Chuck E. Cheese parking lot, and that if they went their separate ways he’d never seen any of them again and he’d be stuck, fighting on his own.

“Do you guys wanna come to my place?” Gordon asked as casually as he could, “One more science team sleepover as a last hoo-rah before figuring our shit out post-resonance cascade?”

“Gordon-” Coomer started and cut off with a soft ‘bzt’ that Gordon had come to learn was his cybernetics interfering with his brain, “-like that.”

“You’d like that?” Gordon asked, his hand opening questioningly.

“Yes Gordon, that would be pleasant!” Coomer said.

“What about the rest of you?” Gordon asked, looking around at everyone else. All of them offered their agreements, Tommy even offering to call Darnold over. Then Gordon realized something. “What happened to Mr. Coolatta?”

“He had to g-go,” Tommy said with a shrug, “He called a cab for us though!”

As if summoned by Tommy mentioning it, a cab pulled into the parking lot and stopped in front of them. The passenger side window rolled down and a middle-aged man leaned over, his bushy eyebrows jumping as he looked them over, “.... One of you a Mr. Freeman?”

Gordon placed a hand on top of the vehicle as he leaned down to be more on eye level with the driver, “That’s me.”

The driver’s face crinkled up into some expression that Gordon couldn’t read before smoothing out again, “I’m here to give you a ride.”

“Cool cool.” Gordon said, and he stepped back to look at the others, “Well, get in guys.” Then took a few more steps back to stand next to Benrey as Bubby, Coomer, and Tommy began to duke it out over who sat where. He may have joined them, but he was still too tired to have the energy to keep up with them. 

Once the skerfuffle was mostly over, Gordon began approaching the vehicle, then stopped when he noticed Benrey hadn’t moved. Glancing over his shoulder Gordon said, “Dude, you coming?”

Benrey just stared at him, then sweet voiced, a stream of bubbles leaving his mouth.

Gordon rubbed his temple with his free hand, feeling a headache coming on, “Why don’t you just use your words? I’m too tired to even attempt to translate that.”

Benrey stepped closer and sweet voiced again, the bubbles popping against Gordon’s mouth. Gordon didn’t really think about it, but he opened his mouth to taste the bubbles as he had done before. As he did Benrey’s voice could be heard in his head,

“ _Don’t have any vocal cords to speak, idiot._ ”

“Oh. I guess that makes sense.” Gordon said, deciding to be the better man and ignoring the insult. Then his brow furrowed, “Wait, no it doesn’t! You don’t have any muscles either but you’re still moving!”

When Benrey sweet voiced this time, Gordon could pick up on the heavy sarcasm, even if he didn’t catch the exact meaning.

“Why, you-!” Gordon chucked his helmet at Benrey’s head, it would’ve hit too (it was amazing what life and death situations could do for your accuracy), but Benrey popped his skull out of his spine and rolled it down his shoulder and arm. Once it reached his elbow he bumped it over and caught it on his other elbow and continued to let it roll, then flipped up his hand so the skull rested on his fingertips. He let it hover there a moment, before rolling the skull back up his arm and gave it a bounce at his shoulder so it jumped up into the air. As his skull landed back on his spine, Benrey spread his arms and leg out, jazz handing in a little ‘tah-dah!’ motion.

Gordon tried to remain unimpressed, he really did, but he slowly began to crack. A smile growing on his face and a couple chuckles he tried to suppress with a hand escaping. Then he was completely gone, busting out in belly laughter at Benrey.

Shaking his head as his laughter calmed, Gordon said with amusement, “Dude, your skull is upside down. Let me get that for you,” Then he reached out and gently righted it for him. “There you go, that should help.”

When Gordon touched him, Benrey froze up stiff. Confused, Gordon was about to say something when-

“Gordon!” Bubby called, impatient, “Get a move on!”

“Hold your horses, I’m coming!” Gordon yelled back, going around to pick up his helmet from where he had thrown it. As he passed Benrey on his way back to the vehicle, Gordon made a ‘come along’ gesture with his hand at him and Benrey followed.

Once Gordon had slid into the backseat that the others had left open for him, putting his helmet between his feet, Benrey clambered in after him and settled across Gordon’s lap.

“Really?” Gordon asked, exasperated.

Benrey looked pointedly at the rest of the seats, Coomer next to Gordon, Tommy on the other side of him, Bubby in shotgun, and then back at Gordon in the last seat, tilting his head.

Gordon sighed, running a hand down his face, “Alright fine.” Not like Benrey weighed anything in this form anyways.

“Where to sir?” The cab driver asked politely, a hint of fear reflecting in his face through the rearview mirror. Gordon was probably gonna have to get used to that reaction from the public while hanging around the science team.

Leaning around Benrey, Gordon gave the driver his address, which he inputted into his GPS.

As the vehicle began moving, Dr. Coomer shouted, “Let’s GOOOOOOOO!” And began punching the air between the front seats. Bubby followed suit in the enthusiasm, leaning out the window and practically barking with elation. Tommy remained quiet, but even on the other side of Coomer and Benrey bouncing in his lap like an excited child, Gordon could tell he was smiling.

Gordon could only shake his head in disbelief while he smiled with amusement. How could they all have so much energy still? They were all crazy.

Still. They were _his_ crazies. And he wouldn’t trade them for the world

**Author's Note:**

> The poem bit was supposed to be in ballad meter so it could be song to the tune of Gilligan's Island or the Pokemon Theme Song (or many other songs) but poetry is NOT my strong suit. So I gave up and this was the compromise.


End file.
